Southgate, I am knowingly unfair on him....

I admire what he's trying to do but you need the tools to be able to do it. It feels a bit to me like he's picked up a manager's handbook and decided to play expansive football out from the back (because it's the current trend) which only works when you've got the players to do it. The pool is getting smaller and smaller and the only players the current in the back five this suits are probably Walker, Stones and Rose as they play that way for their clubs. Maguire, Jones, Smalling, Tarkowski, Gomez etc don't play in a three so it might be a bit alien to them. It takes a lot of coaching to get right. Something the England manager is never afforded.

You can't play total football with average players. Simple as that.

We also need to bear in mind that although there is a big clamour for Shelvey to get in the side now the Ox is out, in the games that matter we will be surrendering possession more than we'd like. That suits a willing, tenacious runner more than a fluid passer that struggles running the other way. There's a reason why he doesn't perform as well away from home. Newcastle don't have the ball as much. The same applies to England. As good as he is, we can't have any passengers so I'm with Southgate on not picking him.

comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 5 hours, 55 minutes ago
Dinghy lipped plank who cost England cos he can't take a pen
Then had the audacity to laugh about it while making money off Pizza Hut
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bit harsh, You May have also sold your soul if the right price cane in.

I actually think he’s the right manager for the here and now. Let’s face it, we’re not great. He’s hardly sat on a golden generation here but what we do have is some promising youngsters. Bringing those through into England squads under a coach some know from U21 level, yeah seems sensible.

I don’t mean the following to be offensive (stating up front) but football isn’t used to managers who sound vaguely intelligent and rational. England fans seem to want passion and tub-thumping and managers that take the odd back-hander. ‘Characters’. And those that aren’t like that are deemed establishment.

Personally I think Southgate has done little wrong and a lot right.

Nothing against him. You could definitely argue that the way he got the job smacked of a sort of FA clique, but he’s not done badly. As others have said, he’s got a fairly average bunch to choose from (except the forwards) and has got us smoothly to the finals.

Who cares if he seems a bit dull? He probably isn’t away from the cameras and, in any case, perhaps a calmer temperament is OK for international jobs, where your relationship with the players is different.

comment by Can Solo (U6997)
posted 1 minute ago
I actually think he’s the right manager for the here and now. Let’s face it, we’re not great. He’s hardly sat on a golden generation here but what we do have is some promising youngsters. Bringing those through into England squads under a coach some know from U21 level, yeah seems sensible.

I don’t mean the following to be offensive (stating up front) but football isn’t used to managers who sound vaguely intelligent and rational. England fans seem to want passion and tub-thumping and managers that take the odd back-hander. ‘Characters’. And those that aren’t like that are deemed establishment.

Personally I think Southgate has done little wrong and a lot right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think the game has moved on a bit since then, thank god! Most of those tup-thumping, tea-throwing dinosaurs are either dead or disgruntled taxi drivers these days. I've never liked all that. If Southgate loses his job (he shouldn't - just let him do a Joachim Lowe and oversee the next 10 years or so) I'd like a manger like Eddie Howe to come in. I'm sick of the 'character' managers. Allardyce is probably the last one and he's not exactly flavour of the month. So glad he lost the England job. We would have treading water for years.

I personally would have been very interested to see how Allardyce did. Shame how it went.

I don’t think Southgate’s track record warranted him getting the job, but he’s done OK.
I too was curious to see what Allardyce would do, but his start was poor, he seemed in awe of the likes of Rooney and appeared too weak to drop him - in fact he pretty much admitted it...

The tactics Southgate has played, whilst not in anyway groundbreaking, haven’t really been wrong, and he’s makinf progress. Let’s see how he does with surely on squad quality, a last 8 team, possibly better.

I just dont believe he has the personality or character to inspire anybody let alone a team of top pros.

Yes he has done ok but I definitely dont think he is the answer at all